American Big-Game Hunting 
seventy-five buffalo a day, the hides of which 
were worth from $1.50 to $4 each. This 
seemed an easy way to make money, and the 
market for hides was unlimited. Up to this 
time the trade in robes had been mainly con- 
fined to those dressed by the Indians, and 
these were for the most part taken from 
cows. The coming of the railroad made 
hides of all sorts marketable, and even those 
taken from naked old bulls found a sale at 
some price. The butchery of buffalo was 
now something stupendous. Thousands of 
hunters followed millions of buffalo and de- 
stroyed them wherever found and at all sea- 
sons of the year. They pursued them during 
the day, and at night camped at the watering- 
places, and built lines of fires along the 
streams, to drive the buffalo back so that 
they could not drink. It took less than six 
years to destroy all the buffalo in Kansas, 
Nebraska, Indian Territory, and northern 
Texas. Ghevtew, ‘that, were left vol mthre 
southern herd retreated to the waterless 
plains of Texas, and there for a while hada 
brief respite. Even here the hunters fol- 
lowed them, but as the animals were few and 
192 
